South Brideswell

NJ51SW 31.02 5097 1001

This ring cairn stands on a terrace on a W-facing hillside about 150m W of South Brideswell. It is much disturbed but appears to be of two periods. The original monument appears to have been a ring-cairn 23m in diameter and 0.5m high. It had an outer kerb of edge-set stones, now largely defined by robber trenches and stone holes, but upwards of fifteen stones remain in situ on the SW and NW. A trackway and field dyke overlie the SE quadrant, largely destroying the cairn in that quarter. In the second phase the ring-cairn was supplemented by a round cairn, 14m in diameter and now 1m in height, which was built over the central court. This cairn has also been extensively robbed, particularly on the SE.

(CRAIG94 71)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 7 September 1994

RCAHMS surveyed the cairn at South Brideswell with plane-table and alidade on 7 September 1994 at a scale of 1:100. The plan was later amended by Adam Welfare and Kevin Macleod on 23 June 2005.

This cairn lies on an E-facing terrace in an area of rough grass and gorse. Though it has been badly damaged by stone quarrying, and by the formation of a hollowed trackway and field dyke on the SE, the cairn preserves a stepped profile, probably indicating two phases of construction. The lower tier, which forms a terrace some 4.5m wide, measures 23m in diameter and is up to 0.5m in height on the ENE, defined by fifteen kerbstones and a number of robber trenches and stone holes. The central mound measures about 14m in diameter, rising from 0.4m in height to almost 1m where it is best preserved on the ENE. There are no kerbstones delimiting the outer edge of this upper tier, and, though previously identified as a ring-cairn, there is no evidence of an internal court. The cairn is now enclosed on three sides by a modern post-and-wire fence and on the S by the dyke.

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW, ARG) 23 June 2005

The body of this cairn has been heavily quarried and the monument is increasingly becoming submerged beneath gorse. Where best preserved on the ENE, the cairn measures 14m in diameter and rises to a height of 1m above a surrounding platform. The latter, which measures up to 4.5m wide and 0.5m high, exhibits at least nine kerbstones at its edge and extends the monument to a diameter of 23m.

This is not a ring-cairn, but rather an unusual kind of monument occasionally found throughout Scotland distinguished by the presence of a platform (Feacham 1973) - a local example of which occurs at Knocksoul (NJ63SE 1). Such platforms are usually additions to cairns and in this instance must mark a symbolic sealing, rather than the blocking of an actual entrance (Welfare 2011, 245). On the date of visit the NNW to SSE profile taken across the cairn in 1998 was extended to incorporate the hollow way and the drystone wall that slight the monument on the SSE.

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW and AMcC), 7 February 2017.